The True Believer

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My name is William Pilgrim Dankewicz. I am inmate 437582, Mississippi State Penitentiary, Parchman Farm, MS. I was convicted of Capital Murder December 7, 2040 in Jackson. I am scheduled to die by lethal injection at 12:01am tomorrow morning, January 1, 2046. My appeals have been exhausted, requests for clemency have been denied, pleas for commutation have gone unanswered, and even if the US Supreme Court were to issue a stay, it would be ignored by the state of Mississippi. Such is the state of our union. So, there is little doubt I will not see another sunrise. So it goes.

How I ended up here is well known. I am told FOX-CNN has a countdown clock to my execution on their broadcast. But there are parts of my story that few know and may offer some nuance to how a happily married father of two from Springfield, Illinois became the most hated man in America. Well, I shouldn't say most hated man in America – I have no polling data to support that. Maybe FOX-CNN does. That's seems to be the way everything is decided these days. The hatred of me, though palpable, is not universal. There are many who support me and are actively campaigning and protesting for my release. I receive more letters, yes people still do write letters, than anyone in MSP. I also receive a flood of email, which I am legally allowed to view. It seems to run about 60% - "hope you die baby killer!" 40% - "you are a true life-saver. I will pray for you." However, much of the mail is so heavily censored, I have trouble making sense of it, beyond the die or pray sentiments. My very expensive lawyer, T. Eric Hoffer, has told me I have an active on-line presence maintained by my supporters, with hundreds of millions of followers. I have become the cause celebre for many Hollywood actors and professional athletes and am a constant topic of the morning media talk shows, some of which Hoffer has appeared. (By the way, Big Tony, the day shift guard on the row says Hoffer has a face for video. His wife says Hoffer is cute, articulate and passionate in arguing my innocence, despite losing my case. My face is not made for video. All the images of me make me look like a criminal.)  I am the flavor of the month. There are social media sites devoted to arguing the various legal intricacies of my case and how my plight reflects the larger political and social upheaval raging in the country.

My detractors are many, make no mistake, and are extremely vocal, particularly in the conservative states. How someone feels about me falls very much along the political chasm between the progressives and conservatives. At the rate of dissolution of the union, I will likely be the last person put to death in the United States of America. So it goes.

I am told my death might be the catalyst to finally dissolve what is left of the USA. I didn't ask to be a cultural touchstone. I merely saved a woman's life, something I was trained to do! Still, the fact that what I did is viewed with such radically polar perspectives, carrying such draconian consequences, depending on where you live has convinced me that the end of the USA may not be a bad thing. Shit, we can't agree on anything except that the ills that ail the land of the free are from many decades of wanton overspending and a complete disregard for the environment. Payback is hell, baby!

But I digress. I care little whether Congress breaks the log jam and passes the 29th Amendment. Whether states can leave the union only concerns me for the fate of my children and what kind of country they will live in. Fortunately, they are in Illinois, far away from me, and Elsie, my wonderful wife, has gotten approval to emigrate with them to Canada. I have encouraged her to take them and go before the floods and draughts get any worse or Canada hardens their immigration requirements further. I know family, friends, and her patients are hard to leave but climate change has already devastated the Midwest to the point it's not worth staying.

The thick walls of Parchman do not let much of the outside world in. I hear very little of all the protests, food riots, and arguments over national debt that consume the regular media. I get glimpses of what is going on through small tidbits that make it through the censors in my mail. Much is not of any concern to me. One recent email blaming me for the moral decline of the country was interesting. But how the author could then claim I was somehow responsible for bankrupting Social Security is beyond me. Still, not all news I hear is bad. I was pleasantly surprised from one recent email from my bank Morgan-Chase-Wells Fargo. They informed me that my student loans have finally been paid off. It's comforting to know I'm leaving the world with no outstanding obligations. Peace of mind.